Two famous architects choose Turin for Italy's highest towers

Two of Italy's most famous architects were in the northern Italian city of Turin this week to present their skyscraper projects for the city. Renzo Piano is proposing a 200-metre high tower which would be located in the city centre, next to the Porta Susa station. The project, destined to house the Italian headquarters of the Intesa-Santapaolo bank, would cost between EUR 300 mln and EUR 400 mln. At 180 metres, it would bethe highest structure in the country.

On Monday, Massimiliano Fuksas was also in the city to present a 190-metre high tower project for the head office of the Piemonte region. 'It will be the greenest building in Italy', claims Fuksas. And all in glass, in an attempt to call on the Italian politics for more transparency, he said in an interview with the Italian newspaper La Stampa.

The projects have still to receive planning approval from the city council, which is not certain. Renzo Piano’s inner-city tower in particular has been strongly criticised by members of the city council, which fears the structure would obscure the view of the iconic monument of Turin - the 167-metre high Mole Antonelliana.

Meanwhile Turin's citizens have set up a committee to collect signatures against the high-rise development. The group has also been distributing postcards showing Renzo Piano's tower after completion situated next to the Mole historic building. In a letter to the city mayor and sponsor of the project Sergio Chiamparino on Wednesday, Piano claimed that the image doesn’t correspond to the real project and its size. 'In the postcard the tower appears two and half times its real size', Piano said.

The project would be entirely financed by the Intesa-Sanpaolo bank.